Demo Presidential Candidates Being Lobbied For Visits To Bucks

March 10, 1992|by HAL MARCOVITZ, The Morning Call

Although the Pennsylvania primary is more than a month off, Bucks County Democratic leaders are lobbying the presidential candidates hard for commitments to visit the county as part of their campaign swings through the state.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, D-8th District, said the congressman's office has been in touch with the campaign committees of former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former California Gov. Jerry Brown with invitations for the three remaining candidates to visit Bucks.

In addition, the state chairmen of the Tsongas and Brown campaigns are Bucks County residents, so there will be a measure of influence in high circles by the time the Pennsylvania primary rolls around.

"He'll be here, I guarantee it," says Thomas Lingenfelder, a gallery owner from Doylestown who is the state chairman of the Brown campaign. "We have a nucleus here of enthusiastic people. He's got to come here."

The state chairman of the Tsongas campaign is Robert Quinn, the husband of Bucks County Commissioner Sandra A. Miller. Quinn grew up in Lowell, Mass., a few blocks from the Tsongas family.

On the Republican side, party leaders are hesitant to predict a visit by President Bush or Vice President Quayle.

"I just don't think they are going to target Pennsylvania at all," says Keren McIlhinney, vice chairman of the Bucks County Republican Committee. "I think Bush figures he'll be in good shape in Pennsylvania; I think he's going to swing through most of the other states."

Ironically, Bush has never been hesitant to visit Bucks County in the past. In 1980, when he was vying with Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination, Bush visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in New Britain Township. Two years later, Bush visited the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster.

And in the fall of 1988, while running for president against Democrat Michael Dukakis, Bush spoke at a meeting of the Lower Bucks Chamber of Commerce in Bensalem Township.

As for this spring, though, McIlhinney says there is really very little reason for Bush to visit Pennsylvania and, in particular, Bucks County.

"He's in good shape -- it's not like before when he ran against Reagan," says McIlhinney.

Maverick Republican candidate Patrick Buchanan has no known organization in Bucks County and, therefore, few if any local political leaders lobbying for a visit.

On the Democratic side, though, there is plenty of lobbying going on.

Michael Burke, an aide to Kostmayer, says the congressman has asked all three remaining presidential candidates to visit Bucks County.

"I suspect we'll see them all in Bucks County," says Burke.

One reason Bucks County should see visits from the candidates is that Pennsylvania will be competing with no other state for their attention. The last vote before Pennsylvania's April 28 primary is in Virginia, where Democrats caucus on April 11. It means the candidates will have no where else to go for 17 days.

"I'm sure there will be a special effort to mine votes here," says Burke.

Bucks County is also an important area for Democrats to visit. With nearly 100,000 registered Democrats, the county has the third highest concentration of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, trailing only Philadelphia and Allegheny County.

Although Clinton did not ap point someone from Bucks County to chair his state campaign, local Clinton campaign leaders are still confident they can convince him to make a visit.

Lawrence M. Otter, a Dublin lawyer who is the chairman of the Clinton campaign in Bucks County, says, "I put a request in -- we want him here and I'm pretty confident we're going to get him."

In fact, Bucks County campaign workers for Clinton came close to scoring an early coup last month when they convinced the candidate's wife, Hillary, to visit a Democratic meeting in Bucks even though the governor was fighting for votes at the time in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton canceled at the last minute when the campaign decided she was needed more in New Hampshire.

Otter said he will ask Clinton to tour NADC. The installation is on the Pentagon's list for "realignment," meaning that it will lose 2,000 civilian jobs within the next five years.